A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a cutting guide, and particularly to a cutting guide for use with a cutting device having a reciprocating blade. The cutting guide is capable of sustaining high levels of stress while maintaining lateral flexibility allowing a user to easily cut polycarbite structured back carpeting or multiple layers of non-structured back carpeting while increasing the life of the blade.
B. Prior Art
Traditional carpet cutting techniques utilize a hand-held carpet knife. Such a carpet knife is a metal or wood tool that clamps a razor sharp blade. In operation, the user draws the hand-held carpet knife towards or parallel to their body over the length of the carpet being cut. The blade of the carpet knife rides on the flooring beneath the carpet or floor covering being cut during this operation. A major problem encountered by users of traditional hand-held carpet knives is the significant cost of blade replacement. Continuous contact with the floor during traditional carpet cutting techniques dulls and damages the tip of the blade requiring blade replacement approximately every fifty (50) feet. Yet, those skilled in the art of carpet cutting understand that the use of a hand-held carpet knife has become an industry standard and the industry has accepted the cost of repeated blade replacement.
Another problem encountered by users of carpet cutting tools involves cutting multiple layers of non-structured back carpeting. Traditional techniques for cutting multiple pieces of non-structured back carpeting simultaneously requires the use of any one of a number of manually operated hand seam cutting tools such as a cushioned back cutter, a top cutter, a block cutter or a glass type cutter. A skilled user, however, is needed to operate these tools. In fact, the multi-layered carpet cutting techniques require journeyman level experience to successfully perform. Thus, there is considerable training expense and training time required for obtaining a competent cutter of multiple layers of non-structured back carpeting.
Yet another problem encountered by users of carpet cutting tools involves simultaneous or double cutting structured back floor coverings containing polycarbite. Because traditional methods for cutting polycarbite back floor coverings have been unsuccessful, trace cutting has been utilized. Trace cutting is accomplished by first cutting along a tufted row of the first side of structured back carpeting utilizing a carpet knife, top cutter, cushioned back cutter or loop pile cutter. This creates a trim seam edge for cutting the second side. Then the trim seam edge of the first side is used as a guide for cutting the second side. The problem encountered using this method, however, is that the second side will not necessarily fall in line with the tufted row cut on the first side. Another problem is that trace cutting polycarbite structured back floor coverings is only achievable following the trace cutting method when using the manually operated "Gundlach model 295 Unicutter." As is apparent to those skilled in the art, the trace cutting method is time consuming because the user must cut one side of the carpet and then the other side rather than accomplishing the entire operation in one pass.
It is therefore apparent that a cutting guide for use with a cutting device is not only necessary for reducing the cost of blade replacement during carpet cutting techniques, but also for cutting structured back carpeting as well as multi-layered non-structured back carpeting in one pass.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the invention to provide a cutting guide attachable to a cutting device having a blade, for adequate double cutting of a polycarbite structured back carpeting.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cutting guide for adequate cutting of multi-layered non-structured back carpeting.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cutting guide for use with a cutting device having a blade that reduces damage and wear on the blade.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a cutting guide for use with a cutting device having a blade that requires a minimum of training to operate when cutting multiple layers of non-structured back carpeting.
These and other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description of the illustrated embodiment and the attached drawings.